Add to Wish List

Product Description

Scranton Electric Company stock certificate 1940's

Very nice vignette of female Greek figure harnessing electricity in her glowing left hand. Issued and cancelled, Dated late 1940's.

Incorporated in 1907, this utility served the Scranton, PA area. It was a consolidation of : Scranton Illuminating, Heat & Power Company; Scranton Electric Light & Heating Company; Suburban Electric Light Company; Dunmore Electric Light, Heat, & Power Company ; and Priceburg Electric Light Company. later, a number of other companies were acquired. The coal burning generators were fed by nearby mines and served by the railroads. In the 1956, the Scranton Electric Company was purchased by the Pennsylvania Power & Light Company.

Scranton "took its first step toward earning its reputation as the Electric City" when electric lights were introduced at Dickson Locomotive Works in 1880. Six years later, the nation's first streetcars powered exclusively by electricity began operating in the city. Rev. David Spencer, a local Baptist minister, later proclaimed Scranton the "Electric City." The nation's first successful, continuously operating electrified streetcar (trolley) system was established in the city in 1886, giving it the nickname "The Electric City". In 1896, the city's various streetcar companies were consolidated into the Scranton Railway Company, which ran trolleys until 1954.

The first electric lights in Scranton were arc lamps. They were followed by incandescent bulbs. In the early days of electricity, electric illumination was under the control of a number of companies, with a few of the Midvalley towns operating plants of their own. W.W. Scranton, then head of the Scranton Gas & Water Co., was instrumental in building the first electric power plant along the Lackawanna River. Scranton Select Council passed the Peoples Electric Light and Power Co. ordinance in the summer of 1883, allowing for the regulation of electric power.

Electric street cars were introduced by E.B. Sturges in 1886. His was recognized as the first system in the country to run exclusively on electric power. The streetcars were themselves illuminated with incandescent bulbs. Post cards from the era show Lackawanna Avenue at night, lit by scores of electric bulbs. Their captions refer to the avenue as the Great White Way. Scranton was truly electrified.

In 1907, most of the power plants were consolidated under the name of the Scranton Electric Co.